A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler. The word teetotaler has nothing to do with tea. More likely, the 'tee' that begins the word teetotal is a reduplication of the letter 't' that begins total, emphasizing that one has pledged total abstinence. In the early 1800s, 'tee-total' and 'tee-totally' were used to intensify 'total' and 'totally' much the way we now might say, 'I'm tired with a capital T.' Teetotal and teetotaler first appeared with their current meanings in 1834, eight years after the formation of the American Temperance Society.